Icarus Peel and Crystal Jacqueline of The Honey Pot Collective reveal their forthcoming Hobbit House Collective double 7″ single and plans for their full day psychedelic festival at The Half Moon Putney on 30 January 2022.
Could you outline how the concept for The Hobbit House Collective come about?
IP…The Hobbit House is what people tend to call our little cottage in Devon, so we named the studio that. Somewhere along the way that got used on the record rather than The Honey Pot Collective. Keith at Fruits de Mer Records is great fun to work with, principly because he has so many ideas and I am sure it was him who instigated it. And once Ramble On was included it all kind of made sense. We had an awful lot of success with the I Talk To The Wind double ep and I think we decided to try to replicate that.
How you chose the tracks featured and what do you feel you have added to the original versions?
IP…I sent the first part of Evermore to Keith at FdM before Darryl Way or even the drums were on it and he said it had promise. Next I sent him Wolfgang Does The Nurbergring and he snapped that up straight away! I think it was then that we thought why not have one from each of the Honey Pot Collective? I asked what else he suggested and he came up with The Chain to go with the racing car theme. We had a version of Ramble On that Andy Budge had been working on which went with Evermore. After that it was almost plain sailing…
CJ…We always try to add some indivuality to any songs we choose to cover…we just can’t see the point in producing faithful replications. ‘The Battle Of Evermore’ had been in Icarus’s head for a long time, thinking about how he might approach it. He decided it needed a battle sequence . ‘The Chain’ is a stripped-down version, more of a hint at the original. ‘Ramble On’ started off as a very faithful recording by Andy Budge. Icarus added a lot of echo on his bass guitar which Andy said made him feel seasick! You can still hear some of that on the version given to attendees of our forthcoming gig at The Half Moon, Putney in January. I’m no Robert Plant so I approached the vocals in a laid-back manner and Victoria & Icarus’s singing adds something extra. Wolfgang is an original piece written by Andy Budge.
IP…One interesting thing about Evermore is that it took nearly 2 years to record. Old drummer Comfy Rushbrooke delayed but his hands could not cope so a new drummer was called for. Dave Payne knew Andy forever so he was called up and the first time I met him we recorded the drums for The Battle.
How did you get Darryl Way involved on a remake of ‘Battle Of Evermore’?
CJ…One of Icarus’s favourite bands was Curved Air and he certainly regards Darryl Way as the finest rock violinist of all time. After he told me this one afternoon, I suggested that he should seek Darryl out and ask him . We sent him some music of ours and dropped the famous Fruits De Mer name and to our joy he was in and very keen. By coincidence ‘The Battle..’ is his wife’s favourite song, so it was obviously written in the stars.
What’s the concept behind The Honeypot Collective Presents festival at The Half Moon on 30 January?
CJ… I’ve been thinking about this for some time, holding a twice or thrice-yearly weekend event featuring all the bands in The Honey pot Collective, plus a few guest bands and a record fayre in one. While it’s going to be a one-day only event, it will still be a good starting point for similar occasions in the future. It seemed like the perfect time to give it a go to coincide with the release of the EP from Fruits De Mer, and these events are always brilliant when Keith and Liz are involved. Credit to our manager Steve Hallam for putting in the hard yards and organising everything and above all having the belief in us.
How did you decide on the line-up?
CJ …. The three live bands of The Honey Pot Collective were obviously the starting point. We then really wanted a guest band from the London area who would have a local following and were also on Fruits De Mer. Keith suggested Spygenius and they were pleased to agree to join us. We’ve known Paul Woodwright for a long time so it’s a great pleasure to have his band Deviant Amps with us. Hopefully the famous and fabulous Mordecai Smyth and lovely Tabatha will be spinning some groovy vinyl for us in between the live sets.
I’ve heard there’s a special give-a-way on the day?
IP…There most definitely is a CD including outtakes and different versions of the four songs on the double EP. There are also some lathe cut singles but I think they are very limited for sale only, although I recall there may be a raffle too!!
How have you both kept yourselves creatively occupied in the pandemic?
IP…A lot of recording! We have just finished the next Crystal Jacqueline album which, due to hold ups at the vinyl factory, may not see the light of day until next September but will be VERY well worth it!! We did some recording with Swordfish from Astralasia which ended up as The Fisheads release on FdM. I have also made an album of guitar instrumental music which is gathering dust while we consider where it may go. Also…The Acid Reign have been busy with recording bits for something whenever! I also did some weird stuff for Kieth and his massive compilation albums. And we have both had the pleasure of working hard with Mordecai Smyth on his album due for release next year on MegaDodo Records. It is fabulous!!
Do you have any other current releases you would like highlight?
CJ…‘The Secret’ by The Honey Pot, a CD in a picture book, is still fairly recent and has been very successful. There’s still a small number left which we’ll bring to Putney. The Locker Room Cowboys released a CD called “The Future Came And Stole Our Dreams” to fine reviews. Also they have released a wonderful download album called ‘Into The Silence’.
What are your other plans for 2022, if you can make any?
IP… To shine, shine shine!!
CJ…To ‘revive the live ‘!
IP…It is virtually impossible to look too far ahead but loose talk revolves around getting our heads together in the country for the next Honey Pot outing and a possible festival gig in France (!!!) A Double album/collage/paste up/live recording from The Acid Reign….Jay and I have started the music for an album by the next Allen Ginsberg, pure poetry for “Heads”, which may be recorded, in part, on the Mull Of Kintyre! Perhaps we’ll all just have a cup of tea and thank each other for being so nice and count our blessings, one by one…
Dive Deep….
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